UK Offshore CCS Project Advances
The Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project will be operational by 2024, according to the CEO of offshore industry group Oil & gas UK, Deirdre Michie. She told delegates at a conference in Edinburgh, Scotland January 30 that CCS was a "net zero commitment" for the upstream industry group, and without CCS, there would be little prospect of achieving the goal.
She said: "We are looking to work with governments and regulators to progress the five CCUS projects across the UK which now need to move at pace into the next phase." She mentioned the northeast’s Acorn project, which the operator expects to be ready for first injection in 2024, at relatively modest scale.
OGUK will also assist in the development of the commercial business models needed to help deliver two other key pillars of the net-zero carbon world: hydrogen opportunities and the decarbonisation of offshore platforms at scale. OGUK would work with governments and regulators to clarify policies and regulations on all three, she said.
Analysis by the International Energy Agency shows that the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable electricity could fall 30% by 2030 as renewables grow cheaper and hydrogen production scales up. She also said that the UK needs a comprehensive energy strategy, "to be reflected in their imminent white paper."
UK oil and gas demand could be about a third of what it is today by 2050, in the net-zero carbon world. according to some estimates. The Climate Change Committee says oil and gas will still be needed by those heavy industry and aviation, and in many industrial and chemical processes.
That being so, the premature shut down of this industry in the UK would do nothing to impact consumption, while imports would rise and the UK would miss out on the economic benefits of production and sale, she said.
She used the opportunity to remind the audience, which included politicians, policy makers and campaign groups, of the existence of Roadmap 2035, a blueprint for net zero which involves reducing emissions from the operational production of oil and gas, as well as supporting other heavy emitting sectors to achieve net zero through our skills, technologies and infrastructure.
OGA clamp-down
The chair of the upstream regulator, Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), Tim Eggar, told another conference a few weeks ago that the upstream could not count on its social licence to operate unless it improved its environmental performance. He said OGA would clamp down hard on venting and flaring.
OGA told NGW January 30 that it was "currently reviewing and updating" its strategy for maximising the UK's economic recovery in order to ensure that the UK's net zero ambitions are fully embedded and at the same time reflect stewardship and other changes in the basin's operating environment. We are also looking much more closely at flaring and venting, using performance benchmarking which we know has helped drive positive changes. The results of these reviews will be available later this year."